Chapter 46: The Vault of Hel
Zhen Liu and the team managed to safely cross the entryway with little problem, minus some wonky teleportation illness.
Due to the the nature of wandering ruins, their entryways always looked normal, but were more like portals that would cause motion sickness to those unaccustomed to them.
Once the team had safely crossed the line, they had been teleported to a short looking tunnel with a swirling portal gate behind them and an opening in front of them. The team quickly hopped off of Nepherage’s stone board and began to do their own things for a bit.
[Thanks for the ride, Nepherage.]
[No problem milord. Call on me whenever.]
Zhen Liu dismissed Nepherage back into bracelet form. He didn’t really have to, but he had to put on the appearance of “puppet master” still.
“Hahahahaha! Now that was actually refreshing! Who knew such a little gesture could be so devastatingly insulting,” Zhen Hai laughed as he stared at his middle finger. This was quite literally the first time he had ever heard of the phrase, “flipping the bird”, and he was very much amused by it.
Zhen Yue on the other hand was mortified.
“I can’t believe you three just did that,” Zhen Yue groaned while holding her face in her palms. “Couldn’t we have just shot then dirty looks or send a parting blow? Not tell them to…you know!” She helplessly gestured.
Zhen Hai just laughed at his cousin’s plight. “Oh come on cousin, it’s not every day we can rub it in the face of the Wolfe and Corrada families! Enjoy the moment, ‘Ice Beauty’.”
“You-!”
“Hey, Zhen Clan!,” Sullivan called out, “looks like we lucked out on our entrance. Come check it out.”
Zhen Hai, Zhen Liu and Zhen Yue made their way over to the opening where Sullivan was standing, in order to see just what these particular ruins entailed.
“Oh wow.”
“That’s…big.”
“Is that…a lava moat?”
Standing before them, about a hundred feet away, was a huge immaculate building made of obsidian and decorated with gold. In Zhen Liu’s head, it reminded him of a strange mixture of gothic and Greco-Roman architecture slammed together.
A moat of lava surrounded the building, as strange looking gargoyles decorated the roofs and perches.
While the three Zhen Clan disciples couldn’t see them, their family training allowed them to sense that there were several dangerous aether beasts lurking within the building’s halls, waiting for a chance to catch some unsuspecting prey.
All in all, this place was a massive red flag of a danger zone.
“Hey, what kind of writing is that?,” Zhen Yue asked as she pointed upwards at a spot above the building’s main doorway. Carved on the top of it was a series of words.
“Huh…I don’t recognize the characters. It doesn’t look like Roaring Tide script or Stampeding Bison letters to me,” Zhen Hai answered while scratching his neck.
“It’s probably a warning, ‘Intruders beware’ and such,” Sullivan added.
“Vault of Hel?,” Zhen Liu muttered aloud.
“You understand what that says?”
“Not exactly…,” Zhen Liu lied, “I just recognize those symbols from a book. It looked similar.
Zhen Yue gave Zhen Liu a funny look before switching her focus back to the door.
In truth, Zhen Liu did recognize the letters at the top of the door, because it was written in plain and simple English.
‘How…why are there English words carved into a weird interdimensional building?! Oh…I think I just answered my own question.’
Zhen Liu was all set at this point to go on a weird mental rabbit hole about the implications of finding familiar words in a decidedly alien world, but his cousin Zhen Hai didn’t give him a chance to figure that part out.
“Well, times are a-wasting. Let’s get inside that ‘vault’ and see what treasures it’s hiding! A building this opulent looking has to be hiding some crazy good stuff.”
Zhen Hai proceeded to walk straight for the door, leaving no chance for the rest to voice any dissent. Didn’t stop Zhen Yue from trying though.
“Zhen Hai!”
But it was too late, Zhen Hai had already rushed ahead and was just about to enter the main door.
“Ugh! Come on guys, let’s make sure that reckless shark doesn’t end up biting off more than he could chew.”
A silvery aura encapsulated Zhen Yue moments before she moved at impossibly graceful speeds to catch up with the eager Zhen Hai.
Zhen Liu was about to catch up with his cousins, but stopped when he noticed Sullivan wasn’t moving. The aforementioned digger was just standing there, harshly staring at the building.
‘Huh…now that I think about it…why the hell is this guy back here? He lost a lot of his friends here…even if he’s a stone cold professional…why?’
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‘So here I am again…get ready A-hole. I’m coming for you and this time, I will beat you. Wait for me, mi amor… I won’t leave you behind…not this time.’
“Hey, Sullivan. You okay?,” Zhen Liu asked.
“Yeah, just…a little nervous is all,” Sullivan lied.
“Huh…okay. I’m going to go catch up with my cousins. Don’t dally for too long.” Having said his piece, Zhen Liu proceeded to leap away in the same direction as his cousins.
As he looked at the fourth young master’s departing form, Sullivan tried his best to suppress a smile to form on his face.
He has heard the rumors of Zhen Liu’s aether puppet, but had his own doubts. But now that he experienced it’s abilities up close and personal…he had some new plans in motion.
‘Apologies ahead of time Zhen Liu. You seem like a nice guy, but I’m going to need your power if I’m going to get my payback. Hopefully you’ll forgive me for the risk I’m about to put you and your family through.’
Sullivan took a deep breath before releasing a long sigh. He quickly made his way to catch up to the Zhen Clan heirs.
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‘So Sullivan definitely has ulterior motives…I better get some benefits out of this.’
